Page - 127 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 05/02

Although it has been suggested that “the villain is usually motivated by a compound of avarice and a utopian altruism”,31 most Bond villains do not fit this description. For instance, the purpose of SPECTRE – the main enemy of Bond throughout the series – has always been extortion and blackmail.32 I find it relevant for my reading that Drax and Stromberg are not members of SPECTRE; they are megalomaniac players in a cosmic drama trying to create a new civili- zation, not just criminals attempting to get more money. The right to use the SPECTRE acronym was legally disputed.33 This complication may explain why some villains do not belong to SPECTRE, and it shows how meanings can be produced rather accidentally. Drax and Stromberg qualify as mythical, near-god characters who are about to bring something new into existence.34 Their activities are supposed to be the mythic origin of the new civilization, but in the end Bond thwarts them.35 In that sense, their activities are located in “the fabled time of the ‘beginnings’”.36 Fur- ther, what is typical of myths is that they are considered separate from logos. The West has imagined itself as belonging to logos, rather than mythos. Myths, like Atlantis, refer to “the Rest”. It is not that “the West” is really devoid of myths, but that myths are not part of its self-conceptualization; they belong to others. In this sense, Bond is the guardian of an empire who tries to ensure that the myths of others – and the aims of mythical villains – will not take place. This reading gets further support when the ethnicities and nationalities of the main villains of the films are explored. Most of them are not British or Amer- ican, although many are European. Not all villains originate outside “the West” in geographical terms, but the rarity of purely British (or even American) vil- lains is notable. Francisco Scaramanga is Cuban/British, Elektra King is English, although the most villainesque character in The World is Not Enough (Michael Apted, GB 1999) is the Russian Renard. Brad Whitaker – one of the two main villains in The Living Daylights (John Glen, GB 1987) – is American, and Auric 31 Bennett/Woollacott 1987, 289. 32 Chapman 2007, 156, 191. 33 Bennett/Woollacott 1987, 192. 34 The narrow academic definition of myth is that it is a creation story, a sacred story of origins with gods, semidivine beings or culture heroes as key actors (Eliade 1968, 5–6; 1987, 95). Myth does not have to be defined so (Segal 2004, 5), but even with that definition some Bond villains can be called mythical. 35 By focusing on selected villains I demonstrate the construction of difference between a certain kind of West and a certain kind of Rest. It does not rule out the possibility of seeing Bond as a mythical character as well. For example, he might qualify as an example of one of the Jungian archetypes, puer aeternus – the eternal child in psychology and child-god in Greek mythology – who fails to secure a partnership (Bond’s relationships are doomed to fail) or a job (Bond’s job status is often under threat). A classic examination of such a figure is von Franz (2000). This, however, is not a very relevant route for my analysis. 36 Eliade 1968, 5. Reading Bond Films through the Lens of “Religion” | 127www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/2, 119–139